Unfortunately for the man they call “Sassangle,” that’s been easier said than done thus far.

“Hopefully I’ll get more fights in now and don’t have any stupid injuries,” Sass told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I realized that I need to protect myself a bit more.”

Sass made his debut back on October 2010, where he earned a triangle-choke victory over Canadian Mark Holst at UFC 120. It was the eighth-such finish in the youngster’s first 11 fights, and Sass looked well on his way to an intriguing UFC run.

Then came an unfortunate encounter with a wine glass.

“It was a drunken night,” Sass sheepishly admitted. “I was away for the weekend with my mates, and there was a wine glass at the end of the bed that someone just left there. My foot went right through it. Glass went right through the tendons, and I had glass all in my foot.”

Sass still bears a scar from the wound on his foot. While it looks harmless enough, the seemingly silly injury kept him out of action for a full year.

“I couldn’t train,” Sass said. “They didn’t want to stitch it, so it was bandaged up until it healed. Then I had to start walking again on crutches.

“There was a lot of scar tissue, and I couldn’t walk on it for about two months. It was pretty bad.”

Sass returned to work in October 2011 with a heel-hook win over “The Ultimate Fighter 12″ finalist Michael Johnson. That result earned Sass a booking with Evan Dunham at January’s UFC on FOX 2 event in what would have been the biggest fight of his career to date.

“Would have been” because injury again forced him to withdraw.

“I had a bad knee, and I couldn’t train, so I had to pull out,” Sass said. “I didn’t want to, but I had to be safe. I couldn’t go into the fight with an injury that was preventing me from training.”

On Saturday, Sass hopes to put his past disappointments behind when he meets Volkmann, a gritty wrestler who boasts a five-fight UFC win streak. The two meet on the Facebook-streamed prelims of UFC 146, which takes place at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena and features a pay-per-view-broadcast main card.

Volkmann has taken some criticism in recent bouts for putting results ahead of entertainment, but Sass knows it’s a stern test.

“He knows how to win, so that’s a good thing, but I don’t want to win a fight by basically lying there,” Volkmann said. “He’s a little bit boring, as well, and that’s probably why he’s not on the main card.

“But he’s tough. He knows how to win fights. He grinds out the win. He’s obviously catchable, both submission-wise and standup-wise. He’s been caught a few times. But he’s tough. It will be a good test for me.”

Sass’s gameplan is no mystery. Eleven of his 12 career wins have come via submission, with 10 of those ending in the first round. But Sass insists he also has a few tricks up his sleeve. The time-off hasn’t been entirely negative, insists the 23-year-old, and he’s added to his fighting arsenal.

“The time off has been a little bit frustrating, but it’s helped me, as well,” Sass said. “I’ve been training in between and getting my standup better. I’ve been sparring, and it’s been OK. It hasn’t been too bad.

“There’s a bit more to me now. My standup has come along well over 100 percent. I’ve been training my wrestling, as well.”

Nineteen months ago, Sass was a relative unknown who made a splash in his UFC debut by scoring a “Submission of the Night” bonus. In the time since, his profile hasn’t raised much due to simple inactivity. Starting now, “Sassangle” hopes to change all of that.